Serengeti National Park, Tanzania Photograph by John Morrison   Eastern Africa: the Greater Serengeti grassland ecosystem in northern Tanzania Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   6,900 square miles (18,000 square kilometers) -- about the size of New Jersey Vulnerable

· Predators and Prey
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Predators and Prey

The Serengeti Volcanic Grasslands ecoregion has one of the highest concentrations of large mammals in the world. You’ll find more than a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of plains zebras, and thousands of Thomson’s gazelles throughout the grasslands. Large predators including lions, cheetahs, and hyenas are drawn to the area by this abundance of prey. Within this ecoregion, the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area have been designated as World Heritage Sites and Biosphere Reserves due to the biodiversity and range of animals represented.

Special Features

The Serengeti Volcanic Grasslands are a mix of flat to slightly undulating grassy plains and scattered rocky areas. Rainfall is strongly seasonal here, and the grasslands can become almost completely cleared of standing vegetation during periods of severe drought. Historically, it was the eruption of the Kerimasi volcano some 150,000 years ago in the highlands that produced the fine volcanic materials that now make up the soils of the Serengeti plains. Volcanic ash produces a distinct soil type called vertisol that supports characteristic plant communities. Another volcano in the region, Oloinyo Lengai, is still active. The biological importance of this region arises from the seasonal movements of populations of large mammals like wildebeest and gazelles in the Serengeti ecosystem, as they migrate across the grass plains with the movement of the rains and grasses.

	Shy and primarily active at night, aardvarks hunt for food alone. These strange animals dig burrows up to 9 feet (3 m) long and will dig at a great speed when alarmed.

Wild Side

After dark, the eerie giggles of spotted hyenas feasting on a freshly killed wildebeest echo across the Serengeti plains. At daybreak, lion cubs wrestle and play, stalking their mothers’ tails in practice for hunting when they grow up. Thirsty zebras congregate at a water hole, keeping their distance until a resting lion moves away. During the dry season, the region’s vast migratory herds of wildebeest, plains zebras, and Thomson’s gazelles move away from the dense, short grass of the plains to forage in the adjacent savanna woodlands. The Serengeti is also home to a number of endemic birds including the gray-crested helmet-shrike and Karamoja apalis.

Cause for Concern

In this ecoregion, significant amounts of protected habitat can be found in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Serengeti National Park, and Lake Manyara National Park. Outside protected areas, however, the shortgrass plains face increasing pressures from the growing human population. Greater numbers of people translate into a need for more farms and ranches, resulting in more cattle grazing on the plains and more threats from large-scale farming. There is also an increased use of unsustainable slash and burn practices by smaller scale farmers, leaving the land infertile.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.